Your Broken Hearts are Saving Lives: Please Do Not Miss This Post

After the Love Flash Mob, Amy led us as we spent our days and nights researching, interviewing and planning to ensure that how we spent the money would be worthy of you and of our refugee brothers and sisters. It has been a hard few weeks. Every day we have been freshly stunned and brokenhearted by what we’ve learned, seen, and heard. And that’s good. When my heart is truly broken, I feel low, abiding joy. Because I know I’ve stumbled onto something worthy of my time, energy, money, and life.

People always ask: G, how do I find my purpose?

I look at them and ask: What breaks your heart? There you go. That’s your purpose.

The first draft of this essay was six pages long — filled with stories about the children who are dying and the heroes we have met. In the end, we decided to keep today’s report concise. Please know that we did not make a move without hearing directly from the aid workers and refugees in each area. We assumed nothing: we listened, learned, and then responded with great care and great love.

We hope and pray you will find our efforts worthy of our Love Revolution.

GERMANY:

Our contact here is Ann — the fierce, brilliant midwife working on the ground with the refugees. From Berlin, Ann and her team watched our Love Flash Mob unfold in real time: They cried with hope and joy and wonder. They kept writing this to us: We can’t believe it. We can’t believe these Americans care so much. Ann told the women she cared for — women spending their days in a park and sleeping in emergency shelters — about you. She said: They want to know what you need most. They want to know what will help. The refugees’ answer was repeatedly: strollers and warm clothes. Strollers and warm clothes. Strollers and warm clothes. We want to keep our children warm and safe.

You sent $20,000 worth of strollers to Berlin for Ann and her trusted colleagues to distribute to families. The strollers arrived this week, and each family receiving one will also get a card from us — letting them know that we see them, that they are not alone. And we’re sending $10,000 to help fund an emergency shelter for women and children run by the Lutheran and Catholic church.

Amy called Patagonia to negotiate good prices on warm clothes for the refugees. Patagonia said: WE WANT TO HELP. But we will not take your money. We’ll do what we can just because the children are cold and we can help them. And then they arranged to deliver $30,000 dollars worth of warm winter gear for refugee families.

Here’s our Ann with a little one you are keeping warm!

SERBIA:

Our contacts on the ground here are CWS, who, along with the Red Cross, are providing emergency food, shelter, and first aid at a checkpoint for refugees traveling on foot. They told us that what traveling families request most often are baby carriers.

Your Love Flash Mob money bought $50,000 worth of baby carriers, hygiene kits and custom care packages for mothers in Serbia. Along with a personalized note of encouragement, each custom care package contains a shawl, caps, winter boots and socks for women and children. You will reach 3,000 families with this gift. Because of you, babies will be held close to their parents’ hearts as their families continue to walk on to safety.

FRANCE AND THE GREEK ISLANDS:

To reach the refugees arriving onto the Greek Islands, we connected with the group Help Refugees. Dani Lawrence, one of Help Refugees founders, wrote to us about how the organization got started:

Dear Glennon,

At the beginning of this September, having seen images of the makeshift refugee camp in Calais France, I planned to load my car with supplies from Costco and drive them over myself. As a mother of three young children, the shocking images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler who drowned on the beach in Turkey made the horrific situation all the more real and urgent to me here in London.

And so we became an ‘accidental charity’. We created an Amazon wish list and began receiving up to 7000 packages a day. We now work tirelessly and voluntarily to fundraise, writing articles, crowd-funding. With the help of incredible contacts on the ground we support many projects in Greece and Calais, we pride ourselves on being able to react quickly and get aid where it’s most needed within hours.

We spoke with the founders from Help Refugees, investigated their organization, vetted each one of their members. They guaranteed that 100% of the donations they received from us would be spent directly on refugees. Finally, when we felt confident that they were the right partner to trust with your funds – we asked them to send us a list of the refugees’ greatest needs. After a week of board collaboration—we sent them this letter:

Dani! Glennon here.

We’ve looked over the list of needs you sent us, and the community of Together Rising is sending $131,423 to Help Refugees to fund the following life-saving projects:

Search and rescue on Lesvos. We’ll support the floodlights project. Please tell your team to continue lighting up the water at night — we want to make sure that your rescuers can see the tiny rafts as they crash in the waves away from shore. We’re also providing more funding for volunteers, so that people will be there to pull the drowning little ones in from the water. And we want to fund your heater project, too — to provide people with a place to get warm and dry after they safely land.

Doctors and translators in Greece. Please use some of this money for that as well. The translators are closest to our hearts—the thought of children being separated from their families tears at us, so if you can find volunteers to help reunite them, we will pay for their expenses.

Shelters in France. We want to pay for you to build shelters for 50 of the most vulnerable families this winter.

Food kitchens on Samos and Lesvos. As much food as our money will buy. We want to feed our family members.

We love you. We believe in you. We admire you.

Your American Sisters

Within minutes, Dani called, having trouble speaking over her tears. “Thank you! Thank you! We can’t believe it! We’re all sitting over here in tears. You don’t understand — you just don’t understand. You are saving lives. You will truly be saving people’s lives with this gift. Please tell Together Rising thank you for us. We promise we will make you proud.”

Here’s some footage showing the floodlights project you funded. Do you see our light? We were right there in the water with them, fighting back the darkness.

Here is one of your food kitchens.

And your shelters. Look. They’re being built right now.

We want you to know that did we did not just send gifts and money. We are developing relationships, sending letters, praying and fretting over every detail. We want and need for this to be REAL. We don’t want these family members of ours to just feel our help, we want them to feel our friendship and hope and pain and connectedness and love.

Here is a letter from you — included in every mother’s package, with each specific gift you are giving to women. This letter is in the refugees’ hands. From you, to them.

Thank you to Professor Farzaneh Milani at the University of Virginia for translating our English into our sisters’ Arabic.

I need to tell you that the past two months have changed us forever. We have seen and heard what we can’t unsee or unhear. We have been given the brutiful gift of knowing and it can’t be returned. We will not try to unknow what we know. We will follow and trust our heartbreak.

And my friends, here’s the good news: Your broken hearts are saving lives.

What I want is for you to think of US as the place to give for refugee relief. To find out why and how: PLEASE COME BACK ON MONDAY.

We will be launching the largest, most beautiful, most important and life-saving Love Project this community has ever seen. We will be joined by a few very, very special friends. We will be joined by four artists and activists who taught us that life is WILD, but LOVE WINS. And that BIG MAGIC only comes from DARING GREATLY.

I will see you on Monday, Love Warriors. Please come. Please come. Love has to show up to win. The world needs us and we need the world.

Glennon, Amy, Sister, Liz, Allison, and Together Rising

– UPDATE!!! Monday, December 21 –

Today’s refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian emergency the world has seen since World War II. Just as the Greatest Generation’s response to the holocaust defined them, so will our response define us. We want to be remembered as the generation that chose Love over Fear.

Four of my most fierce, brilliant friends — Elizabeth Gilbert, Brené Brown, Cheryl Strayed, Rob Bell and I – have a plan to alleviate the unimaginable suffering of our refugee brothers and sisters. We have an audacious goal – we want to raise one million dollars through small gifts with great love. The max you can give is $25. Every $5 offering is critical. We’ll need all of us to make this happen. YOU ARE PART OF THE PLAN.

If you don’t join us — our plan will fail.
If you do — the world will change.

114 Comments

I am a Lay Servant in my church and I preached today, Epiphany Sunday. I shared my epiphany this holiday season – due in large part to the information you have been sharing, Glennon. It was a bit daunting to push at people’s believes about the refugees and I am sure that I annoyed or angered one to two (or more) people. I shared some of the realities that you shared in your blog and passed on information about the Compassion Collective. Maybe a few people will be thinking about a different personal reaction…. Thank you for helping God open my eyes

I feel I was meant to read this post, as I was reflecting on the past year, and thinking of my life in the coming year. I am so very late in donating, hopefully not too late though. I now feel blessed by all I have and feel a deep sense of responsibility to help the refugees. Thank you Momastry for the post & updates. It is so very well written and moving.

I look at these pictures and think “there but for the grace of God go I.” It could so easily be me and my children in those dire circumstances if we had been born in a different place. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to show our sisters we care.

Thank you G & Sisters, thank you ~ thank you!!
Clicked on your link and donated to Help Refugees and then went to leisurefayre and bought a sleeping bag…. because luckily me and my family have a warm house (here in Wales, UK), plenty of food, and lots of presents under our tree… we are looking forward to a lovely Christmas and I wanted to be able to share something with these sisters & brothers who are in such dire need at this point in time.
LOVE YOU ALL!! xxx jess

I’m sitting here, unable to stop weeping. I normally never read comments on anything posted online, but I’m crying even more reading how much all of us BELONG TO EACH OTHER. So proud to be a part of this community and a part of what happens when the everyday miracle of love shines its light into the darkness and reminds us that the light gets the last word.

G if you are ever feeling small please read this post over and over again. You and your team and the gifts of this community of monkees (that you built) are doing God’s work globally. That is HUGE! Thank you for letting me be as all part of your light ❤️

I am blown away by what I read, the pictures I just looked at, and the short video I just watched. I am blown away by what’s going on there right now, as I sit here in my comfy home with my family. I first read this post at work yesterday & was instantly moved to tears. So, I put it aside & decided to let it absorb for a bit. I re-read/re-looked at it this morning & am in tears again. What you fantastic women are doing is incredible. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I want to donate. I wish I could do more, but I feel so grateful to be able to give to people like you, who are helping our brothers & sisters in such beautiful, heart wrenching ways. So, can I donate now/today, or do I need to wait until Monday? Thank you!
Elizabeth Leahy

I’m in awe and I totally want to be like you when I grow up…I want to be so fricking brave! You. Seriously. G for President…but meanwhile, just keep changing the world. I’m praying for you and yours. xoxox

I have the image of a funnel — do we sisters come through the small end with Together Rising pouring out the large end? Or do we sisters flood through the large end and Together Rising specifically targets through the small end?
Either way — EFFECTIVE, and LOVE WINS.

Reading and crying while my family watches basketball and I’m trying to explain little bits of money so many women so much good…the baby in the pantagonia jacket, the spotlight video {sob}…..I’ll see you all Monday…..!

Im in New Zealand, and I’m in tears – thank you so much for this incredible update, Please always ask for anything you need, in whatever small way I can I will always help – it’s such an amazing feeling to know even though I can’t do everything I want to do, or even very much – what I can do makes such a huge difference – with your help and caring the world is a beautiful place to live in – thank you! I’m so grateful for this beautiful gift at christmas time – all my lovexx

Oh my goodness, Glennon. You just made me cry all over my computer. Yes, I am pregnant, but I don’t think I can entirely blame the hormones (for once). I will try to rig up some sort of waterproof laptop cover between now and Monday. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping all of us sisters find each other so we can help to hold one another up.

I read this in the midst of feeling hassled and bothered with the responsibilities this season brings upon us. I had hardened my heart to the joy of Christmas – not enough time! Too many gifts to buy! Buy! Buy! These refugees who need our light the most, are bring light into OUR lives by allowing us to remember that we belong to one another. Thank you for the reminder that we CAN change the course. That even our small part matters. I think I had forgotten that Christmas is about Christ and Christ is about miracles, and He is working through us to perform a miracle right now. Man, I love you good people.

Geeee G
I’ feel a twinge of regret that I didn’t’ cough up some more bucks back during the
love Flash Mob…I’ll never doubt you again….especially love how Patagonia jumped in to help.
G you got my tears flowing this time, the pictures are heartbreaking in a Good way!
Much love to you and your family, also please,give my best regards’ to Bubba !
See ya when ya get to Cincinnati again.
stan,your man…[your words]…lol

Hi Folks,
We are missionaries living in Germany. a friend of our is collecting baby slings, clothes etc and tomorrow we will take them to Calais. We will spend 3 days trying to help and see what the situation is there. We were also going to Dunkirk but the police have blocked all access for now.

I would love to contact Ann in Berlin and see what we can do to help her also.

Thank you–so much–for caring. Thank you for being faithful and using partners who have done great work for years. I get up at 5 am most every day to watch BBC World News. I am grateful for Lyse Ducet who does tremendous reporting (she was in Syria this past week). I am also very mindful of the African refugees who so often are not heard. This morning on BBC they spoke of the anniversary of the Bosnian peace accord. I saw a photo of a bunch of men and I couldn’t help but wonder what would / could have happened if women were involved 🙂

I LOVE YOU, GLENNON!!! And I LOVE all the sisters of Together Rising!! Thank you so much!! So many of the posts before have said what it is my heart. You are an amazing angel and I am grateful from my tippy toes to have found you and Together Rising and all of our sisters. At first I felt sad for the Love Mob dollar limit for giving and now I see how powerful it is. How many sisters we must have to have given so much together!! I am humbled and grateful and crying and loving over here. I will continue to give and I am SOOOOOO excited for Monday and the artists and activists I also love!! THANK YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!

As a new mom of an 8 month old daughter, I have never known the love of a mother until recently, just in time for me to see this crisis unfolding with my new mother eyes. I have cried tears of empathy and heartbreak for these poor refugees and their children ripped from their homes and safety for an unknown future. Thank you for giving me a way to grieve with them and feel I can play a small part to help. I will be back on Monday to help some more.

Thank you for putting hundreds of hours and prayers into researching and finding the best ways to help all of these beautiful people. Tears are in my eyes reading and seeing how they’re being helped and loved. I needed this reminder today that it’s not about my little annoyances and grievances – it’s about the BIG picture and REAL love and being more selfless instead of selfish.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your tireless work, for being a source of light and hope in the midst of so much darkness. I will return on Monday, open-hearted, to learn how I can contribute more.

Glennon and the team at Together Rising,
Thank you for giving us a space to productively use the love that comes with our broken hearts. I am so eternally grateful to you for teaching us that out of our broken hearts comes love. As you’ve taught me time and again, broken is the beginning! My heart is once again broken open after reading today’s post. I cannot wait for Monday to turn that heartache to love through the magic you will bring to us! You, your team and all of the woman who stand up and respond with their broken hearts are the best gift the world could have. Thank you!

I’m so grateful I can count myself among the miracle workes and the women giving love and light in the darkness. I have felt so powerless through this crisis and this has given me hope and a belief that together we can change this. Blessings on all of you amazing women leading the charge!

Watching the video of the lights with the boat, I felt the cold run down my spine and thought of what I would feel if I were in that boat, desperately trying to keep my son safe. And I cried . And my heart broke. I will be here on Monday.

This. This is just so so amazing. I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face feeling so thankful that for the first time since this crisis broke my heart I actually feel like I was able to help even though my part of it felt so small. I am so thankful that there are multitudes of sisters who are also brokenhearted about this and who also want to help. Glennon and Amy thank you both and thank you to your team for what you do. Thank you for giving us a chance to be a part of it and for keeping us posted along the way. Thank you. Those words really aren’t enough, but they’re what I’ve got.

Crying. Thank you Together Rising team for translating all of our small donations, big love and sisterhood into lifesaving gear and clothing and food for these brothers and sisters of ours. This is the best Christmas letter I could ever read. I love you all and am humbled to be a small part of all of this amazing work you are doing on our behalf.

I have tears running down my face as I read this! I am so proud to have been apart of all this love! Thank you G for allowing me to contribute. I will definitely be here Monday to see how I can help offer more love to those who truly need it.

G, can you bring us a few of the individual stories? I want to stay freshly broken. It gives me hope and perspective. Also, are you familiar with Brandon of HONY and the refugee series he has done? If the two of you teamed up, wow, the world would never be the same!

Thank you for the updates, I cherish donating to your organization because I get a chance to read/hear what our help is doing and it reminds me that we, together, are changing things for the better – even if it’s a little bit at a time.

Watching the video made me cry of the refugees getting off a raft.
Thank you all for everything you are doing at Momastery. All the hard work. All the travels. All we had to do was pledge. I am humbled.

God bless you, and the work you are doing. Praise the Lord for the help you are providing our sister families across the world!!! I’m praying for your continued strength to carry on your ministry. I feel privileged to have seen you speak in Portland a few week ago – your sharing of yourself and your story will always be remembered. LOVE wins!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you….you are doing what I want to do but couldn’t figure out how to do. I want to be apart of this…I will help however you need me to help. This is such a heartbreaking situation and I cannot imagine what these families are enduring. Please please please let me know how I can help. I will be there with all the love in my heart!

Speechless, filled with awe, and so giddy that I’ve figured out your riddle at the end…I love being part of this community. Thank you for your very hard work on our behalf and for our sisters around the globe. Bless you and your broken open hearts. xoxoxo

I just discovered your blog. (I know!) and I read this overwhelmed by feelings of awe in what you have done, the echoes of the love you have given these beautiful people, and more than a little bummed that I missed the whole start of this. So I’m REALLY looking forward to Monday. blessings to you and everyone here that has participated even in a small way in saving lives.

This is amazing! I am shedding tears over this beautiful work from all the beautiful people. Thank you. This kindness and giving and love is exactly what I needed today, to remind me that there is hope. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us Monday!

Not a dry eye reading this post I bet.
Words fall short. I can’t even wrap my head around all that has been done and put into motion. You guys are AMAZING! Grateful to be a part of this and very much looking forward to Monday. <3 to all!

G- my heart is broken wide open this morning. Thank you- you and the team have done amazing work connecting our gifts to the mamas who so desperately need them. Christmas is brighter now knowing that the lights are on to save those families, and the babies and mamas are warmer as they hold each other close.
Thank you doesn’t seem like enough. -Laura

Oh man, crying at work. I have been searching for my place to plug into this important effort, thank you for sending it right to my inbox. A close friend always says that God doesn’t speak in code -He will make it very clear where He wants me to show up. Message received. Much love to Together Rising!

Last night was brutal…we served our ladies(375) dinner at church and we were met with so much rudeness and disrespect. One lady even yelled at my child fro something that was not her fault, it was actually the yelling woman’s fault. We give and we serve our church often and well, and I love it and it usually fills me up and brings me joy. Last night was heartbreaking for me, I was discouraged and down, distraught and sad, I went to bed and cried. cried that my fellow sisters treated my family in the way that they did. Then I awoke to this, and this put slave on my wound…. I will be here Monday to help those who can appreciate our giving, who really need our service, those who need us and hopefully my heart will be whole again. Broken for these sisters across the ocean and their plight but whole because my little can make a big difference in someone elses’ life.
~Thank you G~

Don’t stop Collette. It was not about you or your family. Many of these ladies have lots and lots of problems and Christmas brings out so much vulnerability. I/We admire all that you do. This is part of what G calls Brutiful. I think you are beautiful.

Welp. I was just sitting here, reading Ephesians and drinking coffee, and now my Bible is covered in tears and my coffee is cold. I used to think I had to do something big and impressive, all on my own, in order to make any sort of difference. I had to write a book or be a missionary or create from scratch the best sermons/children’s program/Bible study EVER. (I have a bit of a savior complex, I know.)

But this Advent season knocked the wind out of me. It’s not just the busy-ness of children’s ministry in December, or the hate that’s infiltrated even my community, or the addicted loved ones–it’s the fear that my light isn’t strong enough this time to get through to the darkness. That I’m too exhausted to live in love today.

But this–these people who do the big amazing things and the people who do lots of little things to make those big things possible–this is hope. This is hope that I can do what I can with what I have and that’s just fine because the work of the Spirit is always more than the sum of its parts.

this brings me hope for these people. I pray it gives them hope as well. and warmth, and food, and shelter, and safety. and all those things those mama’s and babies deserve. thank you, thank you, thank you.

I made the mistake of reading this at work and I am losing my battle at fighting the tears. What an impact Together Rising is making in so many individual lives. It’s staggering to think of the hope and love bring brought to so many with these gifts of necessities. Thank you for dreaming big, for searching so carefully for people who were already on the ground lending assistance, and for the love you share to each who will receive these gifts. But most of all, thank you for giving each of us in the US so far away from the face of this great need hope and a way to lend our help and love.

I am so moved, so proud and so amazed by you Glennon and all the sisters. Craig was right when he said the only thing tiny about you is your body. You ARE huge in every other way. What a beacon of light and love. Thank you.

Thank you for this, Glennon. I am starting my morning crying as I read your words because I’m so grateful to you and your team for doing such a thorough job and for showing our hearts to those receiving the items. To think of them reading that letter is so lovely. Thanks for all you are doing!!!!

I feel that I don’t have words big enough to express the myriad emotions I feel right now. I’m almost embarrassed that I feel pride, but I do. You have shown us and the world that little things can make big differences. By limiting the giving, you allow EVERYONE the unlimited gift of love.

Thank you, Glennon (and Amy and Sister and Liz and Allison and EVERYONE!) for the most wonderful Christmas gift.

Thank you for finding the place to give the money. These babies. My god. The babies. Knowing that some of them will be warm and safe and held close because of us is so, so amazing. Thanks for making my Christmas.